Okay, call me Mrs Fusspot, but what’s up with this cover?! Dat ass. Those boobs. Did they get stung by some bees from hell??

~Goodreads Synopsis

“Having survived the end of the world, the Queens follow Hannah back to where it all began: Mage University. A long perilous journey awaits the Rat Queens as they attempt to find out what happened to Hannah’s father while battling their own demons.“

~My Thoughts~

Let me explain my main annoyances with the new artwork by simply showing you the differences. The mystery of what happened to Dee’s ass:

Before

After

What did happen to Dee’s ass? Seriously…Maybe she grew up a little but that wouldn’t make any sense when it comes to the chronology. It’s not like years have passed between the before and after picture. Luckily, this only mainly effects the cover, so it’s not that of a big deal. Just something that caught my eye. In a very unsubtle way.

What frustrated me more was the way Violet has been drawn this time (I’m not referring to the beard, she had it before as well, I just like this image better than the ones I could find of her with a beard)

Before

After

She just looks so much more masculine (apart from the massive rack she’s displaying on the front cover). I guess the people who do like this change will come up with the argument that she’s a dwarf and she definitely looks more like one now. However, I really don’t think it’s an improvement. I want the old Violet back! And the old art style, really…

It’s obviously not just the main characters; you can see it in all of the other characters and surroundings as well. Tizzie, a side character from the other volumes, was totally unrecognisable for me up until the point where her name was mentioned. And then I still wasn’t entirely sure if this was the same girl we were talking about…

Before

After

The Tizzie from the previous books was a scrawny girl with ash blonde hair. The Tizzie from this book has saddlebags and golden blonde hair. I don’t have anything against looking at saddlebags, by the way, I have them myself as well, but it’s just an entirely different girl! I think some weight was added to all of the characters, come to think of it, which isn’t a bad thing either. It just would’ve been nicer if they started off the series with that in the first place instead of changing it halfway in.

Anyhow, yes, the new artwork: apart from the colour palette, I’m not a big fan of it.

The story is alright, but feels a bit clunky and…different. The Mage University looks pretty awesome, but we hardly get to see any of the actual insides of it. The different types of scenarios and sceneries rocked, but the transfer from one to the other was done rather messily.

We finally get to see a bit more of Betty’s history. It’s not much, but hey, it’s something! I also loved that this volume was even thicker than the previous one: more to read! There was a lot of action, in-depth storylines (maybe a little too in-depth because they confused me from time to time), and some raw emotions. I mean, the previous two books didn’t really cover up much, but this one goes deep…
At the same time, it’s fast paced and thank fuck, the humour is still in there!

There’s still a lot of swearing (though less than in the previous books) and some nudity again. No sex scenes this time, though. Just bewbs.

I already mentioned the book was lusciously thick right? This is partly due to a Braga special in the end. Braga is a one-eyed female orc warrior who’s…oh, just look at her will ya…

She’s my favourite side character and this little special left me gasping and hoping there will be a sequel to it because…I need to know what the hell just happened there!

~Giveaway~

To celebrate the release of this latest volume of Rat Queens and give you a chance to seeing the differences between the volumes for yourself, I’m hosting a giveaway of all three of the volumes (click on the corresponding images [and then on ‘Volume 1’ and/or ‘Volume 2’ to go to my reviews of the previous two books).

IKR?! Apparently the previous illustrator’s in jail or something, so they have a new one now. Which is great and all, I mean, I still can’t draw like that if I tried! But I wish she would’ve stuck to more to the previous illustrations…

On who reminds me the most of myself, I would probably have to say Betty. Just for her love of most things edible and her knives. Not that I use knives, ever (well okay, maybe to chop up a few carrots here and there).

Goodreads

Kindle Edition, 320 pages Published July 5th, 2016 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) Okay, to be [...]

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